Screen printing is popular both in fine arts and in commercial printing, where it is commonly used to print images on T-shirts, hats, CDs, DVDs, ceramics, glass, polyethylene, polypropylene, paper, metals, and wood. In fact, screen printing is arguably the most versatile of all printing processes.
Traditionally, a screen is generally constructed of a porous, finely woven fabric (e.g., polymeric fibers, silk fibers, etc.). The screen can be stretched over a frame to ensure that the screen is taut. Areas of the screen are blocked off with a non-permeable material to form a stenciled screen, which is a negative of the image to be printed; that is, the open spaces are where the ink will appear on the final substrate. Ink is then pushed through the stenciled screen and onto the substrate such that the ink takes the shape of the image outlined by the stenciled screen.
Many methods of making stenciled screens are not readily available to the general public since specialized chemicals (e.g., photopolymers), specialized techniques, and special equipment (e.g., UV curing lamps) are typically needed. As such, the general public typically relies on a commercial vendor for producing a stenciled screen, and usually relies on a specialized shop for using the stenciled screen to print onto the final substrate. However, many of the general public may desire to form their own stenciled screen for their own use to form more personalized screen printed items. Furthermore, if such screens were more readily available, it would be more feasible to use them for printing items which are relatively immobile, such as walls and furniture.
As such, a need currently exists for a relatively easy method of forming a stenciled screen so that nearly any member of the general public can form their own personalized screen printed substrates.